The second free-flight test of the Boeing-built X-40A, an 85% scale prototype of the US Air Force's X-37 spaceplane, will be made later this month, after the successful automated test at NASA's Dryden Research Centre in California in March.
A X-37 prototype will later be flight tested in the atmosphere, before orbital and re-entry flights tests by the fully-fledged X-37.
Source: Flight International
China’s AVIC has secured a contract from the China Manned Space Agency to develop a winged, reusable spacecraft called Haolong.
The UK Space Command’s first owned earth observation microsatellite has been launched, providing the inaugural element of a planned space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) constellation.
Orbital launch pioneer SpaceX is being contracted by the American space agency NASA to develop a so-called “US Deorbit Vehicle” that can safely return the International Space Station to Earth via controlled re-entry.
